Undecided on Gowalla & Foursquare

I’m spending way too much time maintaining a profile on Gowalla and Foursquare. Right now I’m balancing both systems on my iPhone. I’ll check-in on Gowalla, only to copy & paste my comments right into Foursquare minutes later. Why do I do this? Because each system gives me part of what I want in a location based service, but not everything.

Foursquare

I started out using Foursquare in early ‘09; there wasn’t a ton of users and I had trouble convincing others to use the service so I bailed; only to return months later once a user base developed.

Gowalla

I was introduced to Gowalla at lunch with Brian Williams, from Viget Labs. The interface was cleaner, snappier and more pleasant to use, so I picked it up.

Strengths & Weaknesses

I’ve broken down some key aspects that apply to both applications.
Background: For this experiment I’m checking in from Ziggi’s Coffee House in Longmont, CO.

Find a Location

Gowalla is quicker to pinpoint a location; whereas Foursquare usually requires me to search for a nearby location rather then just clicking check-in. *Victory goes to Gowalla.

*Note, if you are on EDGE or a similar network then your location can be off just enough to restrict you from checking in. Foursquare is a bit more forgiving.

To be fair to Foursquare, it did find my location only after typing “Zigg” in the search box. If this happened 10% of the time, I’d be cool with that. My experience is this happens more then 50% of the time, but perhaps experience differs based on coverage and geography.

The Check-In

Both give you the option to drop a comment and then share with your social networks; however only Foursquare gives you the option to “not notify” your Foursquare buddies. I think this is tremendously considerate of Foursquare, but lacking in Gowalla. What if I want to check-in to a mundane location like a grocery store or gas station? Do my friends really want to be notified of that? Maybe, maybe not… but give me the option to control my alert rather then pissing them off with silly alerts that have little value. *Victory Foursquare.

* Foursquare automatically sends a Tweet when the user becomes a Mayor. This is a bullshit move and should really be controlled by the user as an optional send.

Merit Badges

There is a certain novelty aspect to the Gowalla items and the Foursquare badges. To this day I haven’t seen a good explanation of the random things I’ve collected on Gowalla. Foursquare’s badges are somewhat more useful in that they indicate something about the behavior of the user. These features feel like they were created for Russell (UP Character). Slight victory to Foursquare.

Gowalla Miscellaneous

Thumbs Up: The ability to comment on the check-ins of others. This is a nice feature that encourages the followers to interact with each other.
Thumbs Down: Trips. Really, why would I be interested in trips that are hundreds of miles away from my current location. Gowalla, please allow the users to define Trips that are relevant to the locality.

Foursquare Miscellaneous

Thumbs Up: Location specific tips. Hugely interesting if you are visiting a new area or are interested in something new nearby.
Another Thumbs Up: Foursquare seems to be doing more with retailers. While visiting Noodles & Company in Boulder I was alerted to a “Nearby Special” at Modmarket. This sort of integration is what’s going to pay the bills down the road.

Thumbs Down: To-Dos. This seems half-baked. Where is my ability to add a new to-do?

As I said in the beginning, I’m sticking with both for the time being. I rely on Foursquare for the mundane locations and Gowalla for the more exciting places. If Foursquare would nail my location on the first try, then I think I would gravitate over to their app a bit more. If Gowalla allowed me to check-in from a wider geographic location and they added the option for me to control my alerts to friends then I would wholeheartedly stick with Gowalla.